Pushing for later
SuirThing
Carrick-on-Suir, IrelandMember
Quick dip in Clonea today, about 40mins. I'm not a great judge of temperature but maybe 12 or 13C I would think. Air temperature 14c. I am already at the latest point that I have ever swam into the year so every extra swim pushes out the boundary for me. In my own head though, there is nothing between the 1st of October and the 31st of October, so really I need to stick it out another 3 weeks (November) to improve again.
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
Comments
No reason why I couldn't, but daunting when you haven't done it before.
All small steps for me, November is the goal for now.
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
November. Tick. December is the goal for now ....
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
Well done and keep up the good work. It's a bit of a drive, but if you're interested there's a regular swim in Dunmore east at 8:30 every Saturday (followed by a big dirty fry) and 9:00 in the guillamene every Sunday.
There was one extremely cold patch at the far end but otherwise water was fine. For some reason I find it harder to navigate in Clonea with the tide out, I have no idea why. I had to make serious directional changes on a few occasions.
Clare had to get away but Maura was willing to do up and back a second time if I was. Maura is always willing to do a few more minutes if someone else is. We went up and back again and Maura looked at her watch. Two more minutes were required. I had enough now but stuck it out because Maura would have stuck it out with me even if I wanted to do ten more .....
Despite my claims of improved dressing process in my last post, today I was terrible. Too slow, half-dry, half-dressed after-drop. Depressingly, embarrassingly, shamefully, horribly cold.
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
that's December licked. New Year's Day for January maybe ?
the long cold spring this year meant that I wasn't in until May so plenty work to do before I can claim to be "year-round"
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
I had my coldest experience this past Friday. Due to windy conditions that made my coach nix taking a new kayaker out with us the last several weeks, I hadn't been swimming outside since mid November. There had been a temperature change to lower since then, taking me from what was swimmable a few weeks ago to to range of 50 F. Big change and it was sobering.
Full disclosure--I was in a sleeveless wetsuit. I swam probably 45 minutes, but hands/feet were excruciatingly painful. I was also surprised to find that I really couldn't get my head in the water for any appreciable length of time because I would get a seismic headache. Tell me, will that shorten or dissipate with time and exposure? I hadn't heard anyone mention that sort of immediate pounding pain in the forehead--but wow. I expected to take some time to get my head in because I've experienced that before, but this was really a no-go for me this time. Bugged me too because it left me unable to really swim well and get warmer faster.
I was also surprised to find that my fingers and toes even today have residual tingliness/mild lack of sensation at the tips.
Anyway, I know this is a process and I am being safe and slow about it, but I'd love to hear any wisdom about what I should expect about the headache and residual numbness.
Well I didn't make New Year's Day but thanks to some subliminal coaxing from @loneswimmer I did make it in before January was out. We headed down to the Guillamenes yesterday, me for a quick dip and Donal doing his own thing. Not having been in for 7 weeks (early December), I was absolutely dreading it, but fully aware that if I missed January I'd be in no hurry to get back in before summer. I consoled myself with the thoughts that it would have to be easier for me than for annual Christmas Day swimmers, and hoped that my early winter efforts would be enough to carry me through.
Having Donal there meant no last minute chickening-out, and even though he was getting in for much longer than me, at least we would be getting in together. I had decided that ten minutes was my goal because it was going to be at least 2-3 degrees colder than the last time I was in, Donal estimating that it was a touch under 8C. I did 12 minutes in the end, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was out and dressed before the afterdrop, the Guillamene is miles ahead of Clonea in that regard. In fact I wasn't too cold at all and feel I could probably have managed 20 minutes. This though is a good thing, better to stick to the plan, even if it is within the comfort-zone, than get carried away and end up over-reaching. Watch out February, here I come .....
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
two weeks of easing back into it now in the pool is the plan and hopefully an OW dip before the end of the month .... "year round" is once again at least a year away
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
October is here so I'm half-way to year-round again!
Although I've previously swam as late as January in the sea (February & March are the coldest months for sea temperatures here in Ireland), I had never swam in the river Suir (pronounced shoe-er, my favourite swimming location) any later than September.
We are experiencing some unusually mild and sunny weather (for the time of year) this week so yesterday morning I squeezed in a quick 1.5k to tick the October box .... another little mile stone!
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....